


face to the highway

by janie_tangerine



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5 Acts Meme, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-21 21:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janie_tangerine/pseuds/janie_tangerine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>where Dean and Cas go on a road trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	face to the highway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pann_cake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pann_cake/gifts).



> written for the last five acts round - the prompt was road trips, the title is from Tom Waits.

“I think we need a vacation,” Dean declares ten minutes after dropping Sam at Amelia’s door – he’ll check in with him in a couple of days, but he really did seem happy, and things might be working out, and if he wants out then he wants out. Dean will respect it.

And he thinks that he fucking earned a vacation. And that Cas earned too. They closed Hell, they closed Heaven, Cas isn’t tied to the sons of bitches anymore, and – he can’t take the idea of hunting right now.

Cas raises an eyebrow at him – he looks tired.

“A vacation.”

“Well? I’ve never been on one. I think. That I can remember. And I don’t think you have either. We need to – just do something that isn’t hunting. I think we earned it.”

“I – I don’t know how it works.”

“Wanna know what, neither do I.”

Cas sends him a small smile, shrugs, as if saying well, just drive.

“Hey, you can ride shotgun. You know that, don’t you?”

\--

They go to the Grand Canyon first. Dean has been there with Sam (on the way to Amelia’s). Cas says he hasn’t, for some reason, and so they drive there. It’s still as gorgeous as Dean remembers it.

As they walk through the path back to the entrance of the park, when they aren’t actually near the canyon itself, Cas tugs at his sleeve.

“What?”

“Wasn’t it in a movie?”

“The Grand Canyon? It’s in a ton of movies, Cas. Be more specific.”

“That one you mentioned once. Where the two women hold hands and drive into the canyon together. Committing suicide, obviously.”

“Thelma and Louise?” Fuck, Cas still remembers that? “Well, yeah. What about that? You actually seen it?”

“I told you, I missed television. And – you neglected to mention something about it.”

“Like what?”

“They kissed, before driving off the cliff.”

Damn. Dean had remembered it just after throwing that line out, but he hadn’t thought that Cas would get it anyway. Jesus, it was years ago.

“Oh. Right. They did.”

Cas stares straight at him and for a moment Dean can’t help wondering if he’s pissed, and then – then he moves forward and kisses him.

Brief. But forceful enough to state his intentions.

“I would hope that out of the two, I was not Louise,” Cas says then, and Dean can’t help it – he laughs first, and he kisses Cas again later, and he doesn’t care that there’s a bunch of tourists around them and that half of them are clapping.

\--

The greatest ball of twine in the world, is… well, it’s –

“I don’t see the point of this,” Cas declares standing in front of it.

“You know what,” Dean says, “you’re right. Let’s blow this joint.”

\--

Atlantic City is a blast. They win a decent amount of money at a casino thanks to Cas’s straight face and Dean uses it for a good hotel room. The kind with a real tub in the bathroom, one that is made for a grown man to fit comfortably, and lavender under the pillows and clean sheets and no magic fingers. They spend half an hour going around the Boardwalk, and when Dean takes Cas’s fingers in his own he doesn’t even know he’s done it until after the deal’s sealed, and then he doesn’t move them away because it feels nice. Cas is smiling and there’s wind ruffling through his hair, and Dean decides that he needs to re-think his opinion of New Jersey – the only two good things it has going for it aren’t just Jack Nicholson and Bruce Springsteen.

\--

New Orleans is hot and humid, but they also drop there in the middle of some music festival and there’s more people playing on the streets than Dean remembers from the last time he was here. Cas ends up giving money to most of the people he hears – he says something about liking how pure they sound. Dean figures it’s a quirk of his.

They run into Benny at some kind of jazz club and miraculously, he and Cas don’t start bickering five minutes after. They buy each other drinks, Cas doesn’t get any reference but admits that maybe he judged him harshly when they were in Purgatory, Benny says that he’s seen everything after having an angel apologize to him, Dean buys another round of drinks and when he falls into bed with Cas that evening he’s the right kind of drunk. Not enough to be sick but enough to feel pleasantly buzzed, and for once he had alcohol just for the pleasure of it. He kisses Cas slow and messily, and Cas arches up into him, his hands running all over Dean’s back. Someone’s playing a saxophone under their window. Dean thinks that he’s glad he drove down here.

\--

Monterey is everything Dean had expected it to be. Warm weather, fish markets, theaters and artsy places. When he sees the ocean in the light of day, he can’t take his eyes off it for five minutes.

“You know,” he tells Cas, “I don’t think I’ve ever been to the sea. I mean, I saw it at times, but – we just didn’t do that. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

Cas doesn’t answer, but they spend the next two hours on a public beach, feet buried in sand, wearing just jeans and a t-shirt (at least Cas is wearing regular clothes now), and Dean smiles as the sun warms his skin and Cas’s hand finds his.

\--

In Seattle it rains all the fucking time. Cas buys an umbrella which is also rainbow-colored, and Dean has to share it unless he gets drenched. He drags Cas around in some kind of grunge music tour that Cas doesn’t get – but he indulges him, and Dean is thankful for it. They book a nice hotel again, Dean is done with crappy run-down places. He buys Cas frilly frappuccinos at Starbucks and checks in with Sam while Cas drinks it. He’s doing good, and he sounds happy, and Dean tells him he’ll send postcards. He bought a bunch, he just never got around to.

\--

Dean insists to drive to Area 51 – Cas informs him that it’s ridiculous, and then he’s about to tell what’s in the base when they’re inside some stupid alien-themed bar somewhere near the first military post, and Dean shuts him up with a look. No need to ruin everyone’s business.

He buys a crappy postcard, takes a picture at the military people from afar and chuckles whenever Castiel says that this sounds highly unnecessary.

\--

He writes half of the postcards inside another nice, family-run hotel in Austin. Cas writes the other half. They both sign them. They post them in the evening of their first day there, and patience if Sam notices that they sent them all at once.

“Does that mean that the vacation is over?” Cas asks, sounding half-disappointed.

“Fuck no,” Dean replies, reaching out and twining his fingers alongside Cas’s. “I can do this for a fucking long time. Hey, we could go to Mexico. Not so far, is it?”

“I’d like it,” Cas says quietly, and Dean thinks that Mexico is not a bad idea after all. They have to make up for lost vacation time, after all.

End.


End file.
